Las Meninas Project

Although art appreciation education is attracting much attention nowadays, it is no exaggeration to say that art appreciation education has traditionally had subordinate status to creative self-expression activities. These may be mutual art appreciation activities at the end of a lesson to recognise the “good points” of one’s own and others’ pieces of art work or artistic work may be approached to find reference to the techniques of expression. However, there are only a few actual cases where a direct approach is made to the act of “viewing”. The background of such reality may be the narrow view that appreciation principally relying on linguistic description simply leads to the learning of knowledge. Another factor may be the short-circuited perception that the qualitative aspect of appreciation remains to be an emotional or sensuous reaction to art work. However, there appears to be a belated active debate on desirable art appreciation education having re-examined the traditional views. Art appreciation education at school tends to be associated with the image of the appreciation of famous paintings and art appreciation education focusing on sensing the intention of the expression or sentiment of an artist tends to be at the core of its methodology. Many recent studies on art appreciation education, however, seek the possibility of breaking away from conventional knowledge-oriented art appreciation education where knowledge as well as fixed views of art work and artists are taught. New approaches, such as visual thinking strategies and dialogue-type appreciation, are especially attracting attention but there is also strong criticism of these approaches.

There are many questions to be answered regarding art appreciation. For example, should the scope of appreciation be much wider than art work? How much knowledge and information should be possessed in advance to appreciate famous paintings? How should children’s interpretation of art work be interpreted and evaluated?

The Las Meninas Appreciation Project has been launched to discuss the possibilities and questions regarding art appreciation education. For this project, Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez which is ranked along side other painting masterpieces is selected as the common subject for appreciation and art teachers of primary and junior high schools nationwide are asked to participate in this exercise of art appreciation education. This exercise is outlined in a pamphlet entitled “Designing of Teaching of Art Appreciation Using Las Meninas by Velázquez” (published in October, 2006 in Japanese; enquiries to Nihon Bunkyo Shuppan Co., Ltd.) This site introduces the project in more detail. We sincerely hope that this Home Page as well as the pamphlet will open the way for further debate on the teaching of art appreciation.

Kinichi Fukumoto
Representative, Las Meninas Appreciation Project
Vice President(2010-), Hyogo University of Teacher Education

Basic Information about Las Meninas

Las Meninas (also known as The Maids of Honour) painted by Diego Velázquez, a Spanish painter, in 1656 is known as a masterpiece in the history of modern Western paintings and is called one of the three greatest paintings in the world.

Background of the Period

When this work was painted, Spain was ruled by King Philip IV but was facing a decline of its might due to the war of independence in the Netherlands (Spain recognised the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic in 1648) and the war with France (The Treaty of Pyrenees was ratified in 1659) and the sphere of its influence, including its colonies, was decreasing.

Baroque Art

In the world of art, baroque art was about to be born with architecture providing the focal point. The word “baroque” was originally a contemptuous description of 17th century art used by people in later periods and was used to ridicule the grotesque as well as over-fastidious impressions created by such art. In the field of painting, expressions conveying a presence which would overwhelm the personal senses, i.e. elaborated techniques to remove the wall between a work of art and the viewer, were employed. The people drawn often give the illusion that the viewer or the real world of the viewer actually being watched. Las Meninas is no exception.

D. Velázquez

Velázquez became the court artist at the extraordinarily young age of 24 and eventually climbed to the position of palace chamberlain which was the highest position among palace officials. He also sought to become a member of the Order of Santiago, one of the most esteemed titles for Spanish noblemen. The red cross, representing his membership of the Order of Santiago, on his tunic in Las Meninas was awarded after his death and was added to the painting.

Mysteries of Las Meninas

The title “Las Meninas” was given in the 19th century and the painting had been called “The Family Picture of King Philip IV” and other titles. It was originally hung in the summer study of King Philip IV. It was painted in the principal salon of the apartment of Baltasar Carolos, a deceased son of the King. On the far wall, two paintings by Juan Bautista del Mazo can be seen even though these paintings after Rubens are obscure.

Las Meninas is a group portrait with Princess Margarita at the centre. Because of the depiction of Velázquez himself along with the King and Queen who appear in a mirror, there are many interpretations of the theme of this painting. One is that the main theme is “the dignity of the artist as the creator” or “the nobleness of painting art” as a universal truth. Another is that the painting was simply painted for the King to realistically experience for himself what is depicted in the painting, presupposing that the King would be the sole viewer of the painting which would be hung in his study.

These different interpretations originate from the existence of a mirror showing the King and Queen side by side. The common understanding is that the King and Queen in the mirror implies that they visited the studio. Is this the correct interpretation?

There are also several theories regarding what Velázquez painted on the canvas located to the left of the painting. The viewer can only see the back of the canvas. One leading opinion is that it is Las Meninas itself. The essence of Las Meninas is the constant posing of mysteries and this is exemplified by the large number of works in homage to Las Meninas by Picasso and other artists.